Thursday, December 12, 2013

I love linky parties especially when they are about getting to know fellow blogging buddies better! :) I am linking up with my new friend, Michelle, over at Fabulous in First.

Hot Chocolate or Eggnog?

Hot chocolate. Just the name eggnog makes me want to gag! I made the BEST hot chocolate the other night for my husband and four year old daughter with a DD K-cup, whole milk, whip cream, chocolate chips, and rainbow sprinkles on top!

Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them underneath the tree?

In our house Santa wraps all the presents. The only thing unwrapped are the stockings and they are full of small toys, gloves, a hat, nuts, fruit, and candy. My kid are both allergic to peanuts so we probably won't go with the nut tradition.

Colored lights or white?

I know it's boring but I love white, it looks so pretty from the outside! Maybe one of these years I will get colored lights!?

When do you decorate?

This was our first year hosting Thanksgiving, so I needed a little recuperation time before decorating. We just did it this past weekend (12/7) and it really put us into the Christmas spirit.

Real or Fake Tree?

I grew up with fake trees, but my husband is dead set on real. I'd love to go to a Christmas Tree Farm and start a new tradition, but we haven't yet. Usually we just go to a man on the side of the road selling Christmas trees.

What Tops Your Tree?

Right now a start, but usually it is an angel.

Favorite Christmas Memories or Traditions?

We always had a huge Christmas Eve celebration with family at my Grandmother's house. Now it is at my parent's house. Like I mentioned before I'd like to add the tradition of getting our Christmas tree at a Christmas Tree Farm and also go to see Bright Lights, which is a whole street of people's houses decorated with lights.

Do prefer giving or receiving?

Giving! Not only do I love giving, but I usually over buy for my family.

What is your favorite Christmas song?

I absolutely love Christmas music and in high school participated in a Christmas concert around the town daily with Show Choir or Madrigals. My favorite song is either Oh Holy Night, Ave Maria, or In the Bleak Mid Winter.

Candy Canes. Yuck or Yum?

I'd rather have cookies or ice cream :)

Favorite Christmas Movie?

Elf!!!

Do you shop online or at stores?

I hate shopping in stores with crowds. I am a HUGE Amazon Prime fan.

Photo Cards, Letter or Store Bought Card?

Photo cards. I love seeing pictures of my family and friends as well as sharing pictures of my cute kiddos. :)

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

50 amazing sellers have come together to create this terrific holiday
gift for you! Each page was created by a different seller and includes a
holiday teaching tip and a link to a free holiday product! We hope this
will be a source of many, many great activities for you and your
students.

There are four books total, divided by grade level. Check them all out by using the links below:

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

I'm linking up with Holly today to share something new we've been trying at school!

We have been using NWEA MAP testing. Anyone else heard of it? It is hopefully going to give us a better understanding of exactly what our students need in order to hit our curriculum and state standards. The MAP test (Measures of Academic Progress Test) is a computer adaptive test that reacts to the way kids answer. As a student gets more questions correct, the difficulty increases. As they get more wrong, the difficulty decreases. The test matches itself to the students abilities. Pretty high tech, huh!? The data the test gives is pretty overwhelming, but it is supposed to be very helpful.

(These images were just borrowed from a simple google search, not my personal student's scores, but they will give you an idea of what I am talking about.)

more data...

even pretty charts!

There are so many ways to look at data. If you are a data guru, you would love this assessment.

Today I was included in an all day training to help me group my students by their RIT scores through a Des Cartes to put them into more selected groups. Got that? No?....me either....well not yet. :)

Seriously, there is a lot to learn and I am on information overload right now, but I have high hopes of understanding the information more when I share my new learning with my colleagues.

What types of assessments do you use that correlate with the CCSS?

In other exciting news...I inspired my amazing reading specialist friend, that I've mentioned many times before, Kara, start a blog. Be sure to check it out by clicking on the link below. Give her some lovin' on bloglovin too! It is under construction, but she is an amazing teacher and writer, so I'm sure it will be a great read!

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Happy December teacher friends! Believe me, I know how fast this month is going to fly by and certainly how crazy it is going to be. I hope you can find a minute to reflect on what an amazing job you have as an educator. There aren't too many people who can do our job and do it well. Give yourself a pat on the back, take a deep breath, and have an extra coffee...Winter Vacation is just around the corner!

In the meantime...we are sooo excited to be stop on a Scavenger Hunt Giveaway where
EVERYONE wins! We are just one stop on this scavenger hunt full of amazing products! If you want
to learn how to be a part of this scavenger hunt, head over to I'm Lovin' Lit to get all of the details and begin the hunt!

For our part of the hunt, please follow our blog through bloglovin (click the image below):

We would also LOVE it if you could follow our Teacher Pay Teachers Store for updates on Freebies and New Products (click on the image below)!

For this giveaway we have graciously donated one of our newest and cutest, print, cut, and hang bulletin board sets! This bulletin board states "Warm Your Mind...Read" in adorable block letters. It is student work based where the students are asked to recommend a book they are reading or have just finished. I had my students write their favorite part of the book and why a classmate would like it. I also included a blank sheet of lined paper if you choose to give your students a different assignment to add to the bulletin board. Either way, it is sure to look adorable! (Click on the picture below to see more images and the listing in my TPT store.)

If you haven't checked out our bulletin board sets, you should. We have a ton, basically a few choices per month. We love changing up our student work based bulletin boards monthly, but we do it in an easy, fun way. We'd love to help you decorate your classroom or hallway and involve the students in the process!

Besides bulletin boards Robyn and I love to put together mini units based on the CCSS and our curriculum standards. Our newest product, which is perfect for the winter season, is our Gingerbread Mini Unit! Check it out! It even has a research project for the students and an easy to use rubric for you to grade with. Everything is included and it is sure to be a lot of fun!

DON'T forget, everything in our TPT store is 28% off for the next two days! :)

Oh and before I forget, don't miss our secret code "Frosty" for the hunt! :)

What are your plans for the week? I love this linky because if I am looking for something extra, this is the place to go! Unfortunately, this four day break flew by and without leaving me time to do ANYTHING. On Black Friday our family got hit with the stomach bug....we still haven't recovered from it. My papers are staying in my school bag ungraded and I am starting to Lysol down the house. Hopefully this week will be better.

First, if you like FREE you'll want to be around here Monday, I am SUPER excited to be a part of I'm Lovin' Lit's Scavenger Hunt, I can't wait to participate to win the amazing prizes and I know you will love them too!

Second, I'll be participating in the TpT Cyber Monday Sale, so fill up your carts and get shopping!

Third, this week we are taking our summative assessment for our second unit in ELA. Over multiple days, students will be creating research based questions, researching the questions, and developing a deeper understanding for the book, Faithful Elephants. Have you ever read that book? OHMYGOSH, if you haven't get some tissues and read it! When you know WHY the events in the text had to happen, the book is even more meaningful!

And last, but not least, we will be celebrating two birthdays this week! My son was born on my daughter's second birthday, so yes, my children are exactly two years apart! So far, this has made for an exciting December 6th! :)

Hey friends!
Thank you for stopping by our blog. We are two Connecticut, small town, fourth grade teachers. We have each taught 4th grade for eight years and are passionate educators. We love this grade level and enjoy working together. We especially love finding and creating useful resources for our students and teacher friends. We love making teacher friends online so feel free to send us an email or leave us a comment.